Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus. - We go on vacation to that small island in August.

In Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus, kami tells you that the speaker and their group went on vacation, but the listener was not part of that group.

If the listener was part of the vacation group, you would say:

Kita berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus.
= We (you and I and others) went on vacation to that small island in August.

What exactly does berlibur mean? Is it “to go on vacation” or “to be on vacation”?

Berlibur comes from libur (holiday, day off) with the prefix ber-, which often makes an intransitive verb.

Berlibur roughly means:

to be on vacation / to be on holiday
or in context, to go on vacation

In practice, in a sentence like:

Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu…

it is usually understood as we went on vacation to that small island (a whole holiday trip), not just “we were having a day off there.”

In casual speech, people also say:

Kami liburan ke pulau kecil itu… (very common, informal)
Kami pergi berlibur ke pulau kecil itu… (we went to go on vacation to that small island)

Why is ke used after berlibur, and what’s the difference between ke and di here?

Ke and di are both very common prepositions:

ke = to, toward (movement to a place)
di = at, in, on (location)

In this sentence:

berlibur ke pulau kecil itu
= go / be on vacation *to that small island*

You’re talking about the destination of the vacation, so ke (movement) is correct.

If you want to emphasize being at that place (location), you can say:

Kami berlibur di pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus.
= We spent our vacation *on that small island in August.*

Both can be correct, but:

berlibur ke → focuses on going there
berlibur di → focuses on staying/being there

Why is it pulau kecil itu and not itu pulau kecil? How does the word order work?

The noun phrase is:

pulau = island (head noun)
kecil = small (adjective)
itu = that (demonstrative)

Typical order in Indonesian noun phrases:

Noun
Adjective
Demonstrative

So:

pulau kecil itu
= that small island (literally: island small that)

Itu pulau kecil is also possible, but it works differently:

Itu pulau kecil.
= That is a small island. (a full sentence: itu = that, pulau kecil = a small island)

So:

pulau kecil itu → a single noun phrase: that small island
Itu pulau kecil. → a complete sentence: That is a small island.

Does itu always mean “that”? Can it also mean “the” here?

Itu most literally means that (as opposed to ini = this).

But in real usage, itu often also functions like a definite article (like the in English):

pulau kecil itu can be:
- that small island
- or, depending on context, the small island (a specific one both speakers know)

So yes, in many contexts itu can feel like the rather than strictly that, especially when both speaker and listener already know which island is being talked about.

Why do we say pada bulan Agustus? What does pada mean, and is it necessary?

Pada is a preposition that can mean on, in, at, often used with:

times/dates: pada hari Senin (on Monday)
months/years: pada tahun 2020 (in 2020)

So:

pada bulan Agustus = in the month of August

However, pada is often optional in time expressions. All of these are possible and natural:

Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus.
Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu bulan Agustus.
Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu Agustus lalu. (last August)

Using pada sounds a bit more formal or careful; dropping pada is very common in everyday speech.

Why say bulan Agustus instead of just Agustus? When is bulan needed?

Bulan literally means month. So:

bulan Agustus = the month of August

You can often drop bulan and just say:

Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu Agustus.
(understood from context as “in August”)

In more careful or formal Indonesian, or when you want to be explicit, you include bulan:

pada bulan Agustus (common in written or formal speech)

In casual speech, you’ll hear:

Agustus kemarin (this past August)
Agustus nanti (this coming August)
without bulan.

There’s no past tense marker like “did” here. How do we know this sentence is in the past?

Indonesian verbs normally do not change form for past, present, or future. Tense is understood from:

time expressions (e.g., yesterday, next year, in August)
context

In Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus, the phrase pada bulan Agustus tells you when the action took place. If it refers to a past August, we naturally translate it as:

We went on vacation to that small island in August.

You can make the past time even clearer by adding a word like lalu (past/last):

Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus lalu.
= We went on vacation to that small island last August.

So the verb berlibur itself doesn’t change; time words give you the tense.

Could this sentence also mean “we will go on vacation … in August”?

Yes, in isolation, Indonesian sentences like this can be ambiguous in time if the context is not clear, because the verb form doesn’t change.

Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus.

Without more context, it might be translated as:

We (will) go on vacation to that small island in August.
(future, if we are talking about plans)

We went on vacation to that small island in August.
(past, if we are recounting what happened)

To make the future meaning explicit, people often add nanti or akan:

Kami akan berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus.
Kami nanti berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus.

Context is key.

If I’m talking to someone who was on the trip with me, should I still use kami, or should I use kita?

If the listener was part of the group, you should use kita (inclusive we), not kami:

To someone who joined the trip:
Kita berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus.
= We (you, me, and others) went on vacation to that small island in August.
To someone who did not go on the trip:
Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus.
= We (but not you) went on vacation to that small island in August.

Using kami to someone who was actually there will sound strange or may even feel a bit excluding.

Is berlibur more formal than liburan here? Which is more common?

Both are common, but they feel a bit different:

berlibur
- slightly more standard/formal
- often used in writing, news, or more careful speech
liburan (originally a noun = holiday, used as a verb in casual speech)
- more colloquial/informal
- very common in everyday conversation

So you might hear:

Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus. (more standard)
Kami liburan ke pulau kecil itu bulan Agustus. (very natural casual speech)

Both are correct; choice depends on how formal you want to sound.

Can the subject kami be omitted? Would Berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus still be okay?

Yes, Indonesian is often pro-drop (subjects can be omitted when clear from context), especially in informal speech.

If everyone already knows who “we” refers to, you might say:

Berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus.

In conversation, this could be understood as:

(We) went on vacation to that small island in August.

However:

In writing, or when first introducing the information, including kami is clearer and more natural.
In formal contexts, it’s safer to keep the subject: Kami berlibur…

Are month names like Agustus always capitalized? And how is Agustus pronounced?

Yes, in standard Indonesian:

Month names (Januari, Februari, Maret, April, Mei, Juni, Juli, Agustus, September, Oktober, November, Desember) are capitalized, just like in English.

Pronunciation of Agustus in Indonesian:

A – like a in father
gus – like goos in goose, but shorter
tus – like toos (again, shorter, no strong stress)

Roughly: ah-GUS-toos, with fairly even stress; Indonesian generally has more even syllable stress than English.

How would I say “We went on vacation to that small island last August” more explicitly?

You can add lalu or kemarin to show that it was last/previous August:

Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu pada bulan Agustus lalu.
Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu Agustus lalu.
Kami berlibur ke pulau kecil itu Agustus kemarin. (colloquial)

All of these mean roughly:

We went on vacation to that small island last August.